Ubisoft is using an early build of its unannounced Far Cry 7 as a testbed for generative AI tools, according to Tom Henderson of Insider Gaming, who shared the claim in a since-deleted post on X earlier this week. Henderson, who has previously reported on the game's troubled development, said the genAI “looks like s**t”, as first reported by TheGamer. Just one day prior, Ubisoft published its FY2025-26 earnings, in which the publisher committed to ramping up its generative AI efforts while disclosing a record operating loss.
Henderson clarified in a follow-up that Far Cry 7 is being used purely for research and development, separate from Ubisoft's standalone AI project, Teammates. He deleted the original tweet but left the R&D clarification up.
Ubisoft's full-year earnings report stated the company is "accelerating investments behind Teammates, its first playable Generative AI experience, to enrich player experiences," while also building AI-powered QA bots and systems for NPCs that "can adapt to player behavior and react more dynamically in real time."
Teammates was first demoed behind closed doors in November as an R&D experiment built on Google Gemini, turning NPCs into conversational companions capable of retaining player information. Ubisoft's La Forge R&D division built it, and the company partnered with Nvidia and Inworld AI on a related "Neo NPC" demo at the Game Developers Conference in 2024.
To date, none of these AI experiments have shipped in a commercial title, and there’s no indication that they’ll appear in the final release of Far Cry 7, which itself hasn’t been officially announced. Ubisoft did confirm in its earnings report that new entries in the Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, and Ghost Recon franchises will all ship before March 2029.
Ubisoft's financial woes
As for its financials, Ubisoft isn’t doing too well, having reported its worst year on record with an IFRS operating loss of €1.3 billion for FY2025-26. Net bookings fell 17.4% year-on-year to €1.53 billion, with the company cancelling seven projects, delaying six more, and cutting approximately 1,200 jobs over the past year. A €1.16 billion cash injection from the closing of its Tencent transaction helped stabilize the balance sheet, but the company warned that FY2026-27 will be its "low point" for free cash flow before a projected rebound.
Ubisoft has chased emerging tech trends before, having launched Quartz in December 2021, an NFT platform integrated into Ghost Recon Breakpoint, which was abandoned after intense player backlash.
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The language in this week's earnings report echoes what Ubisoft used in its restructure announcement back in January, when the company highlighted "accelerated investments behind player-facing Generative AI" as part of its new operating model. That subsequently triggered a 34% single-day share price collapse, dropping Ubisoft below a €1 billion market cap.
Luke James is a freelance writer and journalist. Although his background is in legal, he has a personal interest in all things tech, especially hardware and microelectronics, and anything regulatory.
I'll give points to Ubisoft for trying to get ahead of the curve, but One does not simply walk away from its years of toxic culture, sexual and psychological harassment.
The predatory monetization, live-service models, always-online DRM, etc. have been part of Ubisoft for years now, and it's completely ingrained into their corporate culture.
So it's quite obvious they'll try and hop on any bandwagon they deem is a ponzi scheme or cash grab. Be it NFTs, or AI.
May they hopefully go under. Hard to imagine that this company is so disliked by so many but its true. I dotn care what happens to them. I stopped buying their crap after Assassins Creed 3 when it became clear that yearly slop was being released for profit only. Most of what they release has been unfinished bug riddled mess
Why are they investing in AI "despite" losing money though?
That's how business works. An accounting firm might notice that they're losing money by doing math on paper, so they get Excel. Suddenly, they're profitable because their technology allows them to be competitive again. The best clothing designer in the world wouldn't be competitive if they were using a trindle wheel and loom like they did during the Renaissance, they need modern technology to compete in the market.
Everybody's opinions seem so backward when it comes to AI.
let em.
Sooner ubisoft dies the better. They are one of corpo that has been ignoring feedback from its customers for over a decade and they need to learn a lesson.
